Waiting
by MikariStar
Summary: "I'm the last one in this neighborhood who understands the importance of not moving the barrel."


Waiting

I stir my cup of coffee and take in its scent. The old hag had perfected her brew for years, until it was a form of art. However, her elixir didn't have the desired effect on the old school teacher until her son announced that he was planning to become a ship's captain. His mother didn't take it well, barely reacting to the long awaited proposal when it finally came. I think the neighborhood was more excited than her. If you had been there, you would have surely focused only on the promise of cake.

The old witch proposed too, shortly after the spoiled crybaby became a sailor and the school teacher his stepfather. My father declined, though she did bake him a great many cakes in his final years in hopes that he would revive and reconsider. You weren't there to steal the cakes or to confirm beyond a doubt that she wasn't a witch, my father died. Then again, just as quickly as we established that she wasn't a witch, we might have backtracked and say that she was, like so many times before. She vanished, never to be seen again.

Tubby went to some expensive university abroad and returned to marry that detestable girl. She sunk her claws into the captain and fists flew when it was known the child was his. The crybaby actually won and took that girl to his cruise ship, and she took half her ex-husband's properties, but not the half of the neighborhood where I live, thankfully. If you had been here, you could have taken them both in a fight easily, maybe that one time it was best that you weren't.

The old hag didn't move out after that. Nothing can make her move out, which may be at the root of our understanding, nothing can make me move out either. She didn't move out when the apartments in the other yard were torn down and a boutique was built on a whim. She didn't move out when the business, which refused to hire someone of my 'class,' inevitably failed and was shut down. She didn't move out when the abandoned boutique became infested with rats. She didn't move out after the retired teacher smoked one too many cigars. She didn't even move out when her niece invited her to move in with her happy little family. They don't live here, of course, every family that's ever lived here is always incomplete. Sometimes I think the witch cursed this place.

I take the cup of coffee to my lips and allow the hot liquid to warm me as it falls down my throat. You were used to the cold, weren't you? The captain's brat raises his little hands at me and I pick him up. That detestable girl grew tired of the sea and left the brat's father. Predictable, she's probably off breaking the heart of some other poor sap. I let the little brat sit on my lap, careful of the coffee cup I still hold.

I'm only here because the crybaby is out at sea and the old hag could use some help with the brat. Don't make any assumptions, it's not like that. He only calls me 'mama' because his real mother is dead to everyone in this neighborhood. I have never accepted, and will never accept, the crybaby's invitations to set foot on his ship. One day, when the brat is older and the old hag is gone, the crybaby will come to get his son and I won't go with them.

I need to stay here, so that you have a familiar face to greet you. I'm the last one in this neighborhood who understands the importance of not moving the barrel. Just as I am the last one who believes that one day you'll return.

End

In case there's some confusion... The narrator is Chilindrina, thus the one she calls father is Ramon. She refers to Chavo as 'you' in her thoughts. Kiko is the captain that she calls crybaby, the detestable girl is Patty and tubby is Nono. The old hag is Florinda, her niece is Popis, the teacher is Girafales and the witch is obviously Cleotilde. This is just a silly soap opera style fic with older versions of the characters in a situation that is kind of sad and tragic, making it ridiculously unfitting, which is what made the concept fun. As for what happened to Chavo, I'll leave it up to the reader to decide if he's dead, or just gone and if he ever returns to the neighborhood.

Tutorials/Personal: Azure Light DOT Net  
Deviant Art: MikariStar  
Fanart Central: AzureMikari


End file.
